Examining the Creation Stories in Genesis

Examining the Creation Stories in Genesis

It may strike a number of people as strange to see a reference to more than one creation story in Genesis. I would have sworn up and down about a dozen years ago that you were nuts to have even suggested such a thing. But a professor, named Dr. Getz, that I had the privilege of taking a freshman level civilization course with helped to open my mind. More on that here:
https://steemit.com/religion/@jwcarlson/bv23h-my-religious-journey

I originally started writing this post weeks ago, but realized that without some back story there wasn't much point. While there's certainly more background that may seep in, I'll try to focus on the actual intent of the post.

So while coming out of belief and now into disbelief, if you will, I decided that before making what could be a very important decision I should really try to examine the one God that I didn't dismiss out of hand. This particular god is the Biblical God who calls himself, among many other names, Yahweh (hereafter YHWH).

The Bible is a book that I attempted to read many times in the course of my life, without much success. I have been told by many people that when you read the Bible that you should read beginning with Matthew, which is the New Testament. To me that would be like suggesting that you start reading Stephen King's The Dark Tower Series with the fourth of seven books. Or that George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire is best read by skipping the first couple of books. It's just the kind of person I am. I personally believe that this suggestion of starting in the New Testament is because of the myriad issues with contradictions and immoral behavior both by YHWH's chosen people and the deity himself (itself?).

As a young person, my attempts certainly did start in Genesis often. And then probably a smattering of suggested starting points by others. But there's no doubt in my mind that I plowed through Genesis in my teenage years. There is also absolutely no doubt in my mind that I did not comprehend it whatsoever. With that I'll dive in. Any quoted scripture will be from the New American Standard Bible unless otherwise noted. As an optional, deeper dive I'd suggest also reading two other Mesopotamian creation stories that I am sure we can agree are myths. The two myths are the Babylonian epic called Enûma Eliš (meaning 'when on high', available here: http://engl697-mueller.wikispaces.umb.edu/file/view/Enuma+Elish.pdf) and, more well known, the Epic of Gilgamesh (available here: http://www.aina.org/books/eog/eog.pdf). I think that reading these two help put you in the right mindset for what you see in Genesis if you allow your mind to analyze it. I'll try to quote the pertinent passages from these two as they come up. What Dr. Getz helped plant the seed all those years ago was to look at ancient stories through the eyes of the people who would write them as best I could. And to compare how similar stories may have been built on top of each other over the course of time, especially during periods pre-dating written records. For your reference it is believed that Enûma Eliš (hereafter EE) was written around 1200 BCE, The Epic of Gilgamesh (hereafter EoG) written around 2000 BCE, and the Primeval history in Genesis 1-11 written sometime around 1000 BCE. And so we're all on the same page, EoG is the oldest and Genesis the most recent of the three.

Now the meat...

Many (most?) of those reading this are probably pretty familiar with the creation account in Genesis 1. Genesis 1:1-5:
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.”

EE is divided most often in tablet form, the text was found on seven tablets. It begins as follows:
“When skies above were not yet named
Nor earth below pronounced by name,
Apsu, the first one, their begetter
And maker Tiamat, who bore them all,
Had mixed their waters together,
But had not formed pastures, nor discovered reed-beds;
When yet no gods were manifest,
Nor names pronounced, nor destinies decreed,
Then gods were born within them.”

Now, I will admit at first blush that these two texts are not identical, but we're talking about very early written accounts of what would have been oral traditions passed on generation to generation. However, the elements are there, and a full read of EE and Genesis 1 'side-by-side' is really needed to see the similarities. Light and dark. Firmament. Land. Vegetation. Humans. Birds. Fish. Mammals. “The Deep”. An interesting note is that the Hebrew word for deep is tehom, with Tiamat (in EE) being etymologically the same, but in feminine form.

Now, order is relatively important in Genesis 1. The order, after creating all of the land and water and whatnot is: plants (verse 12), fish/birds (verse 21), land animals (verse 25), and finally man/woman (verse 27). The first creation story in Genesis ends at the beginning of Genesis 2:1-3:
“Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”

And that kind of puts a nice cap on it, doesn't it? Everything is 'done'. Created. Ready to roll. And a tidy ending. But then Genesis 2:4-9 stirs mud in the deep:
“This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven. Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. But a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground. Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. The Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. “

What the...?!? We just get the account of creation wrapped up and then ANOTHER, separate account is dropped upon us. This one being entirely different than one one mere verses before. The order in Genesis 2 is: man (verse 7), plants (verses 8-9), animals, but not mention of fish (verse 19), and finally woman (verse 22).

To find a decent parallel we can hop into EoG's section about the taming of Enkidu:
“So the goddess conceived an image in her mind, and it was of the stuff of Anu of the firmament. She dipped her hands in water and pinched off clay, she let it fall in the wilderness, and noble Enkidu was created. There was virtue in him of the god of war, of Ninurta himself. His body was rough, he had long hair like a woman's; it waved like the hair of Nisaba, the goddess of corn. His body was covered with matted hair like Samugan's, the god of cattle. He was innocent of mankind; he knew nothing of the cultivated land. Enkidu ate grass in the hills with the gazelle and lurked with wild beasts at the water-holes; he had joy of the water with the herds of wild game. But there was a trapper who met him one day face to face at the drinking-hole, for the wild game had entered his territory. On three days he met him face to face, and the trapper was frozen with fear. He went back to his house with the game that he had caught, and he was dumb, benumbed with terror. His face was altered like that of one who has made a long journey. With awe in his heart he spoke to his father: ‘Father, there is a man, unlike any other, who comes down from the hills. He is the strongest in the world, he is like an immortal from heaven. He ranges over the hills with wild beasts and eats grass; the ranges through your land and comes down to the wells. I am afraid and dare not go near him. He fills in the pits which I dig and tears up-my traps set for the game; he helps the beasts to escape and now they slip through my fingers.'”

The second story in Genesis is extremely similar in theme to the taming of Enkidu. We have a god or goddess who makes a human from dirt or clay and gives the being life who interacts entirely with wildlife before being introduced to women.

I'll cut this post off here after one more thought that will, I believe, echo in commandments later in the Bible. The Hebrew word for this clay creature is the adam. Not “Adam” as in a proper name. The root of the word is adamah which means ground or earth. Essentially, “earthling” or “groundling”. God then breathes life into this clay corpse. Not to jump into a later book of the Bible right now, but the belief that this is possible shakes all the way down (I believe) to the commandment to not make any graven images of anything on earth. The idea being that someone may be able to form animals or humans out of clay and breathe life into them.

With that I'll leave this for now. Thanks for reading!

Jacob